Instagram Stories: What They Are and How to Use Them

Everyone knows of Snapchat stories, but are you aware of Instagram stories? Although Snapchat and Instagram do have a lot of crossovers, Instagram stories have become popular for personal and professional uses.

Instagram is a crucial part of a business’s online presence, and without it, it becomes more difficult to reach your target audience. More specifically, Instagram stories allow you to post a story with multiple photos that do not go onto your Instagram account feed. That is the magic of Instagram stories. Each picture on the story is viewable for 24-hours since it was posted, and allows the user to post content all day without overwhelming viewers’ Instagram feeds. The stories are viewable by anyone that follows the account. People also have the ability to direct message someone through their story, which creates conversation. This allows more content to be shared, and for a business/brand, that’s crucial.

Since Instagram has become the platform of which only the most polished pictures are posted, having the Instagram story feature allows brands/companies to have more authenticity. Brands/companies can walk their followers through the behind the scenes of the business and share a real-time story. Another big trend with the Instagram stories are “takeovers”. This usually means someone takes over the Instagram account and posts stories in collaboration with a brand. For example, there are many celebrities that host takeovers for well known makeup brands. Collaborators showcase different ways in which they use the product or what they love most about it.

The Instagram stories feature has added a real-time, sharing-based element to social media and it will be interesting to see where the feature progresses to as the social media marketing sector expands.